Pics pics

I didn't take this picture, nor do I know who did so I can't credit the photographer As indicated by u/Spartan2470 below, the picture was taken by Cristian Hernandez of Agencia EFE, but I think its one of the pictures that best represent the disparity of Venezuelan reality at the time.

I no longer live in Venezuela, but I did for about 20 years; I was out there for the protests from 2007 started by the ban of RCTV (Oposition news channel) from transmiting in open signal to the day I left in 2012. While I lived through many crazy things, the people who are out there now fighting for this have courage beyond what is imaginable, the 2012 Venezuela was a joke compared to the 2017 Venezuela.

I won't go into details as to what is happening as there are some other threads that give a good tl;dr here and here(nsfw).

I hope the deaths of the 4 people till now are for something, I hope this generation of protesters can achieve what we weren't able to.

CAR232. CARACAS (VENEZUELA), 04/24/2017 - A group of demonstrators walks alongside a road while members of the police guard during a protest against the Venezuelan government today, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in Caracas, . Hundreds of opponents in different parts of Caracas today clashed with security forces to stay on the streets protesting, despite the use of tear gas by police forces to disperse and block the passage of the marches. EFE / CRISTIAN HERNANDEZ

Well, the chain of command is against their own people. The individual soldiers and police are generally just like everyone else, trying to put food on the table for their families. If they quit their jobs, there will be repercussions and it's likely their family will starve. So they do what they have to.

This is socialism, it has lead to ruin and misery in many states before. At some point when it's failed economic policies start leading to starvation, the people start revolting and it inevitably starts demanding more authoritarian power to maintain its control.

And before someone jumps in to mention Scandinavia....Scandinavia is not democratic socialism, as much as Bernie Sanders sold many young, naive millennials with that talking point. This was something that was rebuked by Denmark's PM himself. In the Scandinavian countries the means of production are primarily owned by private individuals, not the community or the government, and resources are allocated to their respective uses by the market, not government or community planning. Scandinavian countries are highly capitalist, and incredibly high on the Economic Freedom Index. Entrepreneurship and free markets are fervently embraced, Sweden adopted a universal school choice system in the 1990s that is nearly identical to the system proposed by libertarian economist Milton Friedman, and there are no minimum wage laws in Sweden or Norway or Denmark. What Nordic countries practice is the Nordic Model, something that is possible there because of their tiny homogenous populations and high natural resources to support the taxation need for the welfare programs. In fact the social success of the Scandinavian countries predate this model, with several studies showing that the greatest decrease in income inequality there came prior to the implementation of the big welfare .... And even if you say their baseline quality of life is better than the average American, in reality it's a function of vast demographic difference. In reality, Danish-Americans have a measured living standard about 55 percent higher than the Danes in Denmark. Swedish-Americans have a living standard 53 percent higher than the Swedes, and Finnish-Americans have a living standard 59 percent higher than those back in Finland. The emigration rate from this supposed Scandinavian Utopia to the US is positive, with Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway having so many people emigrating to America and very few going the other way.

If you want to see what these same big government welfare states look in larger countries that don't have the natural resource taxation wealth to fuel them, look no further than Spain or Greece or Italy. As nice as Norway seems, its a country with a smaller population than the Philadelphia Metro Area sitting on a gigantic fossil fuel deposit, not really something the USA can emulate.

What is really sad to see here is that so many on Reddit fervently defend socialism and are even trying to deflect by comparing this protest to the feminist "women's march" protests here in the USA.

The leftist college kids need a reality check: We have it incredibly good if you live in the capitalist, free market, individualist USA. This is by any measure the most prosperous and powerful country in history, and a big part of that is because we have fervently opposed the socialist cancer that has destroyed so many other nations like Venezuela. This is why we have a million people immigrating here every year, because they know that while equality of outcome isn't guaranteed in the US, becoming an American citizen gives you access to a very high quality of life and economic opportunities that are unmatched in the world.

Hope most of the protesters can stay safe out there. I'm hearing a lot of reports of government brutality.

Wait no it's way more than that! It's complicated as all things are but basically the leader has declared something tantamount to dictatorship, invalidating the power of the parliament and giving it to courts. They aren't protesting for currency reform, they're protesting for the freedom and future of their nation.

I believe that their currency completely tanked and the cost of goods skyrocketed. Hyperinflation is no joking matter.

Edit: Adding another users reply to make sure people see much more detailed explanations.
Hijacking this to say, see reply by /u/LastManOnEarth3 below for a more thorough explanation.

Pulled onto a highway at 60MPH right behind an 18 wheeler. Just as I was about to pass him, his left rear tire exploded. A major chunk hit me directly in the face shield. I stayed upright and was okay, but if not for that helmet, I doubt I would have survived. I too cringe when I see those "Manly Men" not wearing helmets.

I dropped my bike at low speed, and the asphalt ate 3/4 of the way through the jaw portion [sorry if there's a real word for that part]. It also burned through two pairs of jeans, my soft leather jacket, and my shoe. If I hadn't chickened out and sold the bike, I would have made some serious upgrades to my riding gear. When I see people wearing half-helmets, t-shirts, running shoes and shorts on a bike, I cringe.

Don't become a meat crayon.

I've heard of this happening to a friend of a friend's brothers, uncles, friends former roommate (that type of story). But with a car and not a motorcycle.

Cruising by semi-truck on interstate with window down and the semi's tire blew sending a rind/chunk of steel mesh and rubber into the window and killing the driver of the car.

I freaking HATE driving next to semi's in general, I always try and speed past as fast as possible, but I sure as hell make sure my window is rolled up now just in case.

In short, the opposition says Maduro has created a dictatorship in the last few years. The government has repeatedly blocked any attempts by the opposition to oust Maduro from power by a referendum vote. It has also delayed local and state elections.
The last election held in Venezuela, the parliamentary election of 2015, gave the opposition a majority. Critics say any elections since have been delayed because Maduro is afraid of the outcome.
Then, on March 29, the Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved the Parliament, transferring all legislative powers to itself. By doing away with the opposition-controlled legislative branch, the move effectively meant the remaining two branches of Venezuelan government were controlled by the ruling United Socialist Party. The opposition was outraged and called the move a coup. The decision was reversed three days later, but by that time protests had already erupted.
The protests have been bloody. Six people have died and countless others, many journalists, have been injured.
The opposition call became even stronger when, on April 7, the government notified main opposition leader Henrique Capriles that he had been banned from doing any political work for 15 years. The 44-year-old governor, who has run for president twice, said the government was again acting like a dictatorship.

Gorillas are intelligent animals. So the gorilla probably not only recognizes empathy, but accepts it - based on this image.

Disclaimer: I am very much opposed to poaching.

That said, the actual poachers themselves are usually very poor. When you're poor and trying to support your family, concern for the environment takes a very far place on your priority scale. They also don't have the education to understand their impact. To them, shooting a gorilla is like a rural American farmer shooting a coyote in their backyard.

This is no different than American / European farmers who, a hundred years ago, exterminated wolves, bears, mountain lions and any other wild life that crossed their lands. Empathy towards wildlife (or any animal for that matter) is a luxury of industrialized / wealthy societies and a pretty recent one at that.

The people you should be upset at are the rich folks who consume the products made from these animals. Those are the ones who should be punished, because they're using both these poor animals and the poor folks who risk their lives to shoot them on their behalf.

EDIT - I'm not trying to suggest poachers are kind hearted people who we should embrace, hold hands and sing songs with, but if our answer to this is just "keep shooting poor people" without addressing the rich people at the top, then this will be just as effective as all the other "keep shooting poor people" strategies like the war on terror and the war on drugs.

A much better solution would be to provide economic assistance to these areas and develop them as eco tourism sites so the locals see the gorillas as assets. It's working in other countries and it will work here too.